Survey of Mathematics or Statistics?

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Just now, I got a letter in the mail from my community college stating that, because I scored low on the accuplacer test for mathematics, and also because I was not a science major, I won't have to take College Algebra after all. Therefore, I have the choice of either taking Survey of Mathematics or Statistics.

I'll still need to talk with my counselor to determine whether or not I'll still need to get a developmental math course out of the way before taking either one of those classes, but I was wondering if anybody has ever taken a Survey of Mathematics class. I'm probably not going to stake Statistics because I took that for a semester during my senior year in high school and hated it. Math tends to be one of my weaker areas, so would Survey of Mathematics be manageable for someone who is not as proficient in mathematics?

We don't have a class called Survey of Math at my university, but it sounds like it is just basic beginner math not designed for a math student. If you HAVE to take a math class, and really do not like math, that is probably as easy as it is going to get (if it is what I think it is). Personally, I went with Statistics. I am not strong in math either, and I did not need to take a math class, but I took it anyway and got an A-.

All of the intro/beginner classes except for the ones that say grade 12 pre-calculus or calculus is required or highly recommended are aimed toward people who are starting from scratch.

We do have a class like that here, although I haven't taken it. I'm guessing it's probably pretty similar, and the one here seems pretty much aimed at non-mathy people who have to take one last math class.

Hi, I took math classes in university, though not any named Survey of Mathematics.

This is what I found on the Hawaiʻi Community College website:

This particular incarnation of Survey of Math, also dubbed The Mathematical Mystery Tour, is a semi-rigorous course in "blue-collar" mathematics primarily intended for the Liberal Arts student and/or any other mathematically non-intensive major. However, it should not be perceived by any means as a "watered-down" (math) course. It is steeped in some of the most time-honored, basic mathematical concepts (i.e., measurement, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and logic) with an emphasis on application problems relevent to the real, tangible, and physical world — as opposed to the heavy abstraction of, say, a traditional algebra course.

Logic is a new topic introduced at the undergraduate level. My textbook starts off with some layman examples like "Laura will not go to the theater if it rains" to introduce the concept of mathematical statements before going into mathematical examples.


As for statistics, this is the description given:

UNIT IV. A BRIEF FORAY into STATISTICS

Graphs & Everyday Statistics (G.P.A. & Sports); Descriptive Statistics (Measures of Central Tendency/Dispersion) and Applications; Normal Distributions and Applications.


How comfortable are you with measurement, geometry and trigonometry?

So looks like trigonometry will be new for you too.

This was the page I went into with the course material and assignments:
http://hawaii.hawaii.edu/math/Courses/Math100/Default.html

Hope it gives you a better idea of what it might be like.

As for statistics, what have you covered previously?

Based on what I saw online, I think that should cover the statistics component of Survey of Mathematics.